Q&A Forums

Coating equipment recommendations....
Am looking to purchase a coatings rig, mainly for silicones, and am looking for help on deciding whether to go with a Graco Extreme 45:1, or a Graco GH833. I understand that I would need heavy air with the extreme, but I would rather have to tow air, rather than gasoline for the GH833. I'm looking to find out if there is an obvious choice for performance, or if it is just preference. I will be feeding with at least a 5:1 also. Any thoughts, comments, experiences will be appreciated. Thanks, Steve

RE: Coating equipment recommendations....
Steve, the GH833 is a great machine built for high production, however I think you should go for the Extreme pump. I would also bump it up to a 56:1 for some extra power to push silicone. That's what I use. Here's another thing to consider. If your using silicone, you need to have a spray pump and hoses dedicated to silicone ONLY. You can not flush it out enough to switch to acrylic coatings and back to silicone. Unless you want to be buying lots of hoses. Check your hose pressure rating to make sure it can handle the higher pressure of a 56:1 pump. Some off the shelf Graco or S&W hoses are not rated that high.

RE: Coating equipment recommendations....
Thanks MACS. I was curious as to why one may be better than the other as the specs look very similar. The Xtreme would do a bit over 3.0 gpm at 4k, and the gh would do 4.0 at 4k. However, depending on what application rate I would be using, would I rather have the 2.0 gpm at 4500 psi on the Xtreme? Probably doesn't matter as much as I am making it seem to, but I have a line on each of these units, at good prices, and am looking at making a smart decision. Thanks again for your thoughts.